Thousands of residents, workers and visitors a day travel Cypress Gardens Blvd to get to their destination. It can be a challenge, even when not in snowbird season. Add in our winter residents, and well, we all know the feeling and frustration. It can take numerous light cycles to get through two of our busiest intersections, Cypress Gardens Blvd. and US 17 and Cypress Gardens Blvd and First Street.

Thanks to the initiative and collaboration of our city and county leadership, a deal has been made the with the Florida Department of Transportation to address these bottlenecks. Continue reading for some of the highlights of the project.

Cypress Gardens Blvd and US 17

The Florida Department of Transportation District 1 leadership met with the City and County leadership to devise a plan to address current and anticipated traffic issues surrounding the Chain of Lakes Complex and two of our busiest business corridors, US 17 and Cypress Gardens Blvd (CGB).

The best news, the FDOT has agree to pay for 100% of the design and improvements to the US 17 and CGB interchange. Improvements include:

Creating a way for people to enter the Chain of Lakes Complex and Fieldhouse from US 17. Coming from Eagle Lake, this would mean you can take a right hand turn into the complex, before you reach CGB. When you exit the complex this way, you will only be able to take a right back onto US 17.

You will be able to make a left off of US 17 (coming from downtown Winter Haven) into this entrance (the ability to turn left here already exists). A light is not currently scheduled to be installed at this entryway, but if traffic numbers at the complex or future developments on 17 warrant, it could be a possibility. It would require a variance in light-to-light distance requirements from the FDOT.

A second right-hand turn lane will be added at the US 17 and CGB light, which should increase throughput and decrease confusion of people changing lanes close to the light on US 17 when approaching CGB.

A 3rd turn lane will be added on CGB when you are turning left onto US 17. Currently there are only two turn lanes turning onto a 3 lane US 17 (see sketch below). This will also increase throughput of a light-cycle. It is estimated that your wait time at this intersection could decrease by one minute from 3 minutes to 2 minutes, which is a big deal in the traffic planning world.

The open median at 2nd Street SW and Cletus Allen Drive (the entrance between Starbucks and the pool) will be eliminated. Westbound traffic on CGB wanting to go into the Chain of Lakes Complex will have to make the left at 1st Street. People exiting the complex will still be able to exit at Cletus Allen Dr but will only be able to turn right.

First Street and Cypress Gardens Blvd

The FDOT has agreed to pay for the design of improvements to First Street and CGB. First Street is a City road so the cost of the road improvements would be born by the city. Improvements include:

Closing the median break at Post Avenue to allow for the lengthening of the two left turn lanes from First Street onto CGB. This will allow for vehicles to enter the proper lanes more quickly and decrease back-up at that intersection.

The drawing doesn't show this well, but you will still be able to go straight across CGB on First Street.

Timelines

As you can see from the chart above, the construction would be scheduled to begin in the fourth quarter of 2021 with completion by the end of the 3rd quarter 2022. Now my first response was, that far away? To which the response was, this is the fast-track! Design is step 1, followed by right of way acquisition, utility relocation etc.

To most of us, this can't come soon enough. The new fieldhouse and conference center is scheduled to open in November 2019. A developer has marketed plans to redevelop the site across US 17 from the complex (many refer to as the old fertilizer plant) but there are no timelines on this development.

If the City's current proposed budget passes, we will also soon see relief at the intersections of CGB and 6th, 8th and 9th Streets as well.

We would like to commend Mike Herr and his staff at the City, Jim Freeman and his team at the County, and Florida Department of Transportation District 1 Secretary L.K. Nandam for their work, collaboration and foresight to get this project done!

The improvements are truly needed to ease the traffic congestion in these two locations! Winter Haven continues to grow and we can certainly look forward to the relief!

Reply

Camille Rodgers

9/13/2018 04:14:06 pm

It sounds great except the left turn into the fieldhouse area off of Hwy.17. You have 3 Lanes of traffic coming over an overpass and in a slight curve. That's a disaster. How many people would have to die before that would be redesigned? I know everyone will want easy access to that area after the development, but that's a really bad idea.